WWE’s biggest pay-per-view event of the year is WrestleMania, an epic night of huge matches that is often considered the culmination of months of storytelling. WrestleMania was the show where Daniel Bryan finally overcame the odds to become WWE Champion, where Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels collided in an hour-long Iron Man match, and where Becky Lynch beat Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair to hold both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships.
That said, not every match on a ‘Mania card has been the marquee bout worthy of the show’s reputation, especially in the 1990s. So let’s take a look at some of the least deserving WrestleMania matches of that decade.
10 Koko B. Ware vs. Rick Martel (WrestleMania VI)
Here’s a hot opening match from 1990 -- Rick Martel squashing Koko B. Ware, the undercard jobber most famous for having a bird. At the time WWE was beginning to push Martel in his singles heel run as “The Model,” and this bout was his PPV debut as a singles star.
While it does a decent job of conveying Martel’s whole shtick, it’s odd that a regular Superstars tier jobber squash got a WrestleMania match.
9 The Allied Powers vs. The Blu Twins (WrestleMania XI)
Remember The Allied Powers? For several months in 1995, Lex Luger and British Bulldog were a Mega Powers-esque super duo until Bulldog turned heel and Luger jumped ship to WCW.
This WrestleMania XI bout was the duo’s first outing as an official team as they took on The Blu Twins, better known as Ron and Don Harris, real-life twins who may have had too much exposure in literally every major promotion of the 1990s and early 2000s. Overall, it seemed like a fine television match, but hardly WrestleMania material.
8 15 Tag Team Battle Royal (WrestleMania XIV)
The 14th WrestleMania is best remembered for Mike Tyson punching out Shawn Michaels and maybe The New Age Outlaws being thrown in a dumpster. Less remembered was the tag team battle royal that opened the show, featuring Legion of Doom, The Headbangers, and 13 other teams competing to be #1 Contender to the tag team titles.
While battle royals are usually fun, this eight-minute affair is considered a disappointment considering its lack of credible competition. Maybe they should have cut this match and given the eight minutes to the five-minute Aguila vs. Taka Michinoku Light Heavyweight Title bout that followed.
7 The Mountie vs. Tito Santana (WrestleMania VII)
Just before Hulk Hogan decided to win the first Gulf War by beating a GI Joe character in a wrestling match, a two-time Intercontinental Champion and two-time Tag Team Champion got trounced by a member of Royal Canadian Mounted Police who moonlighted as a pro wrestler.
Technically this 90-second bout is a cooldown match, but given that it followed a Virgil/Ted DiBiase match that ended in a DQ, did it really need to be on the card?
6 Jimmy Snuka vs. Rick Rude (WrestleMania VI)
WrestleMania VI features one of its legitimately best main events of all time, a babyface vs. babyface winner-take-all match between World Champ Hulk Hogan and Intercontinental Champ Ultimate Warrior.
But otherwise, this 14-match card is mostly filler like this squash match where Rick Rude took out an aging Jimmy Snuka. Given that it precedes the main event, you’d think it was a necessary cool-down match, but it also follows a Big Boss Man/Akeem match that goes less than two minutes.
5 Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon vs. The Godwinns vs. The Head Bangers vs. The New Blackjacks (WrestleMania 13)
Opening WrestleMania 13 -- a show that includes the Hart vs. Austin submission match -- is a #1 Contender tag team four-way featuring a whole bunch of guys that the crowd doesn’t seem all that excited to see.
While it’s cool that a #1 Contenders match was deemed WrestleMania worthy, it’s overall just a very underwhelming match and maybe wasn’t the best choice to get WWE’s biggest show of the year on the right foot. Then again, given that the main event is Sycho Sid vs. The Undertaker, it’s not like the show ends all that great, either.
4 Repo Man, The Mountie & The Nasty Boys vs. Jim Duggan, Sgt. Slaughter, The Big Boss Man & Virgil (WrestleMania VIII)
Nestled between Bret Hart getting one of the few clean wins over Roddy Piper in history and the Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair World Title Match that should have been the main event is this four-on-four tag match featuring random wrestlers with nothing else to do.
There’s absolutely no setup for this bout aside from the need to do a cooldown match, and the assortment of performers feels very much like someone hit "random" on a character select screen.
3 Earthquake vs. Adam Bomb (WrestleMania X)
With Bret Hart and Yokozuna doing double-duty and two different World Title matches on the card, WrestleMania X is a strange show best remembered for the Intercontinental Championship ladder match between Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels.
Before that, however, Earthquake obliterated Adam Bomb in like 30 seconds in the latter’s only WrestleMania appearance. It’s unclear why a 30-second squash needed to be on the card -- at least pretend it’s not a cooldown match.
2 Ahmed Johnson, Jake Roberts & Yokozuna vs. Camp Cornette (WrestleMania XII)
Vader had just arrived in WWE in 1996 and teamed up with British Bulldog and Owen Hart to take on a random assortment of babyfaces at WrestleMania XII. The big feud surrounding this match was Vader vs. Yokozuna, but for some reason, WWE opted for a very Raw style multi-man tag match instead of a big ‘Mania singles bout.
However, the two would end up having a short singles match on Raw followed by a longer bout at In Your House 8: Beware of Dog.
1 The Hart Foundation vs. The Bolsheviks (WrestleMania VI)
There’s a surprising number of WrestleMania VI matches that didn’t belong on the show, most of all Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart squashing Boris Zhukov and Nikolai Volkoff in 19 seconds on pay-per-view.
While the Hart Foundation comes off strong, trouncing two guys in such a short time, it also feels like a waste of everybody’s time. Thankfully, Bret Hart would have numerous other opportunities to have great matches at WrestleMania.